INTERVIEW: “Is That Meryl Streep?” — Longlegs’ Editors Recall People Seeing Nicolas Cage for the First Time

"When the footage came in, it was very surprising to see Cage for the first time," Graham Fortin tells me over a Zoom call from the edit suite he shares with Greg Ng.

In the background, screens glow the signature red of Longlegs, the latest film the duo have cut: a serial killer Silence of the Lambs-esque joint marketed to perfection by indie darling NEON, who have taken the "scariest movie of the decade" reviews and spun them into gold, teasing out the question everyone wants an answer to: "Who is Longlegs, and what does he look like?"

Audiences will finally meet the man downstairs today when he creeps into theaters and crawls under the skin of unsuspecting individuals who have no comfort blanket beyond the carefully drip-fed reviews that have been riling up the internet since the Beyond Fest premiere.

I ask Ng and Fortin if they're anxious to hand their baby off to the world with such a reputation, to which Ng tells me, "As Oz said on Monday, 'We're shielded by a thin veil of very positive reviews', so we're going out there feeling optimistic. It's like sending your kid out to university. You're on your own. Go out there. You got a whole other life now."

"Graham and I have been working together on and off for a very long time," Ng tells me. "[Fortin] used to be my assistant editor, and we all came together through our producer friend on this movie, Chris Ferguson.”

The duo have been working together for over a decade. "We did a bunch of short films, Halloween kind of stuff," Ng says. "Then we got together with Cliff Prowse and Derek Lee and made Afflicted."

Longlegs came by their desks, and immediately, they were intrigued by what was on offer. "Structurally, things were a little different at that point in time," says Ng."Where it really took on a new life was seeing the footage come in.”

Fortin and Ng had word that Nicolas Cage was in Longlegs, but when they sat down to assemble the film, they struggled to pinpoint the Academy Award-winning star. "I knew that he was in the movie," Ng says. "I didn't know which character he was going to be. I was scanning through the footage like, 'This can't be. Is that him?'"

Not only were the editors stumped, but anyone who stopped by to sneak a peek at Oz Perkins' Longlegs found it difficult to tell who was behind this ominous character. "In LA, someone was bringing [Perkins] coffee, and the TV was frozen on a frame of Nicolas Cage. Oz asked the person, 'Who do you think that actor is over there?' They looked at Longlegs and said, 'Is that Meryl Streep?'"

There's no denying the feat accomplished by Cage throughout this film. "When Cage goes off, it's like an electric guitar solo in the theater," Fortin tells me. "It's a joy to see somebody take that leap and do the crazy thing.”

Seeing Longlegs with a gaggle of strangers may be the best experience you will have at a movie theater this year. Sharp intakes of breath, sighs of relief, and even uncomfortable laughter are just a handful of the audible reactions I was privy to when seeing it on a Thursday evening in London.

"When we saw the premiere on Monday, we were both very satisfied by getting a lot of vocal responses. Not just in the jumpy scary moments, but it is a funny movie at times. Darkly funny," Ng says. "If you watch alone, you may not think it's funny. But when you watch it with a group of people, somebody may have a nervous laugh. It rides that line of being creepy and funny simultaneously."

Fortin echoes Ng, saying, "There's a lot of space in the film for you to bring your own fears and anxieties to it, even in the way the frames are composed. You're looking around like, 'What could be over there? What's there in the background? What could potentially pop up?'"

He describes Longlegs as "a tea kettle boiling", which is precisely how the tension bubbles in your body — slowly rising until even a phone ringing has you holding your breath in anticipation.

"Oz has very unique sensibilities. He wants to subvert and try new things. He's very experimental and collaborative in that way," Ng says, saying Perkins has "knowledge and respect for the movies".

"[Perkins] has a depth of cinema history," Fortin says. "He comes from cinema history." As the son of Anthony Perkins, Academy Award-nominated actor and the face of Hitchcock's Norman Bates, it is no surprise that Oz Perkins has quietly delivered a film reminiscent of horror classics.

"The first time I met [Oz] at the edit suite, it was in an elevator. I was standing behind him, and I saw his profile. It felt like I was looking at his dad," Fortin tells me.

As expected from the son of Norman Bates, a list of classics was available to Fortin and Ng as references for their cut: Don't Look Now, My Own Private Idaho and, of course, Silence of the Lambs.

The duo also highlight Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 2010 Palme d'Or winner, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. "He had referenced that repeatedly," Fortin says.

Related: Longlegs Review: Nicolas Cage Crawls Under Your Skin in This Hypnotic, Unnerving Tale

"There were also a lot of references that weren't necessarily horror films," Fortin tells me, recalling Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye as a reference, as well as "music, which was a huge component of the film".

"His love of T-Rex and classic rock has played a big influence," Ng says, as Fortin continues: "I remember going back and looking at interviews with Mark Bolan, and that actually informed the vibe of the whole piece.”

It's easy to see how influential music was to Longlegs. Its fingerprints are all over the film, but it's so intrinsic to the narrative that you may not even notice its influence on a first watch.

I ask Fortin and Ng if there are any moments they get excited to see when watching the film — if there's anything we might miss. They linger a moment before Ng answers, "There are a lot of Easter Eggs that I don't think people notice that we added at the very end.” Fortin nods in agreement while Ng continues, "It's like we took a pepper shaker full of demons, and we were just like 'a little more here, and a little more there'. Some of them are more overt later in the movie, and some of them are quite subtle."

"One of the joys of cutting a movie is putting it together for the first time and seeing elements come together," Fortin says. "We're one of the first audience members to see a glimmer of what this is going to be, and that's so exciting.”

Genuine joy and comradery emanate from Fortin and Ng as they recall their experience of cutting the film. "Our job on this movie was to make people afraid and to maximize that fear and tension, and yet it's joyful to come to work and hang out with Oz and work on movies," Ng says. “Our experience working on it is nothing like the movie actually is."

It comes from years of curating a filmmaking family, which has grown up over their time in the industry, leading to the work on Longlegs, which has now evolved into a partnership on Oz Perkins' two upcoming films, The Monkey and Keeper. "There is a great sense of community around these films, which we're very happy to be part of," says Ng.

I prod for any teasers of what we can expect from the two new movies Perkins has lined up in his filmography, to which Ng reluctantly offers a cryptic answer: "[The Monkey] will be a very different flavor movie from what you may expect from Oz Perkins. Keeper — I don't want to say too much, but — for me, right now, it is my new favorite Oz Perkins movie."

"They're both very exciting and very cool projects," Fortin confirms.

The Monkey, based on the short story by Stephen King, with a cast list including Theo James, Elijah Wood and Tatiana Maslany, will hit theaters on February 21, 2025.

It follows Bill and Hal, twin brothers who find an old toy monkey belonging to their father in the attic.

Tatiana Maslany joins the cast of Keeper also, which follows a wife who is left alone in a remote cabin after her husband departs what was supposed to be their anniversary getaway. It is there she faces a sinister presence that exposes the cabin's chilling past.

While you'll have to wait to uncover the secrets of those delights, Longlegs is waiting for you in theaters now.